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LiquidPiston has just released proof-of-concept of its X Mini rotary engine in a go-kart demonstration car to illustrate the efficiency of its small engine compared to traditional engines.

The LiquidPiston team removed the go-kart’s 39-pound engine and replaced it with its four-pound XMv3 engine. It’s being demonstrated as a go-kart in a promotional video linked to its press release.

LiquidPiston says that its new X Mini rotary engine has several practical applications, including handheld power equipment, lawn and garden equipment, portable generators, mopeds, unmanned aerial vehicles and drones, robotics, and range extenders for electric vehicles. Benefits provided by the X Mini include improved noise, vibration, and harshness characteristics. It will also increase product performance, enhance operator comfort, and prolong application life, the company said in the press release.

You can view the video pictured below where the team replaces the engine, and then you can see the go-kart out on a race track.

LiquidPiston, a small company based in Connecticut, has had some success gaining money and attention for its unique, light, high-power-to-weight engines. The company’s engine design may burn diesel or other fuels, and borrow from a number of architectures, but mainly utilize principles of the Wankel rotary.

The company says its unique innovation is “versatile and capable of outperforming conventional engines on all parameters.” LiquidPiston for several years has been fine-tuning different variations of its architecture that it has dubbed “High-Efficiency Hybrid Cycle” (HEHC). The company says it can deliver 50-percent efficiency compared to perhaps 30-percent peak efficiency of traditional engines.

Last March, the company signed a $1 million agreement with DARPA to develop a fuel-efficient, light weight, heavily fueled rotary combustion engine for the U.S. military, LiquidPiston said in its press release.